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THE ARCHIVES
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Morrigan's Pit has closed down as of November 2006. The site and its articles will stay online as an archive until September at least, but probably longer.
The Archives
2002-2006
» CD REVIEWS
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MORNING
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Saskia van Heugten & Mauro Pi
November 2005
http://www.morning.nl
The Dutch band Morning already impressed me with a live gig some years back and I was pleasantly surprised with their debut album "Hour Of Joy" as well. The band is often compared to other Dutch bands with female singers from what is often called the "gothic" metal genre, but I think they stand out, for Saskia has no operatic nor angelic voice, but simply a good and powerful voice that fits the fairly progressive metal they play. I saw them play in Weert last November and had a chance to interview Saskia and drummer Mauro.
Congratulations on a great debut album! How was "Hour Of Joy" received in the media?
Saskia: Positive for the most part, but there were also different ones. One says "great, top production", the next says "the music is good, but the production isn't", everyone seemed to have found different things in it, good or bad.
You can't please them all I guess. And taste will also make a difference, or whether the listener is a musician himself or not.
Mauro: yeah I think that musicians do listen to CDs very differently.
How did you get signed by Black Lotus?
Saskia: We recorded the CD by ourselves first, that would explain that the production isn't of the level of e.g. Epica's. For the possibilities we had, I think it turned out pretty good. We sent it out after it was mixed, a few labels responded and we started negotiating with Black Lotus. Bas is a big fan of Savatage and Chris Caffery, who released his solo albums with Black Lotus, and he wanted us to go there with this album.
Yeah the only criticism I had was that I believe the production could've been heavier, but I can understand if you financed it yourself. Didn't Black Lotus re-master it or something?
Saskia: Yes, they did remaster it. There's already a big difference between before and after their mastering. So they did improve the sound.
Did you get offers from other labels as well?
Saskia: Yeah we did get a few others, but we negotiated the most with, and got the furthest with, Black Lotus.
How does "Hour Of Joy" compare to your older work (demos)?
Mauro: We keep evolving and we're more and more finding our own style. There are some older songs on the album, but they are already more in the current style. In the new songs we're now writing you can also hear we're further developing our own style. I think that's the biggest difference from the older promos and demos.
Which are the older songs on the CD?
Saskia: The whole 3rd demo is on the CD, 5 songs, and 2 songs of the demo before that. They've all been re-arranged and got one big new sound.
Ah, I didn't hear any songs that didn't seem to belong or were very different (except for the cover of course).
Saskia: No, we feel the same. But the new songs I think are a bit different from what's on this CD. It's a new period, now we're tighter as a band etc.
Different style? More progressive, or heavier maybe?
Mauro: Heavier I think. I don't know if I can say it like that, but I think it's becoming less "gothic" as people often see us.
Gothic seems to be a misused term anyway. Real gothic is so different.
Saskia: People want to put a label on you and I can imagine that with this CD, but I think with the new songs we would like to put that behind us, hehe.
For me you're already different than what people call gothic metal these days, but that has often to do with the vocals.
Mauro: Yes, that's true.
I can't stand the operatic vocals, but I love Saskia's voice, it's just powerful and it fits. Which is a bit funny when you seem to draw a lot of inspiration from Anneke (the Gathering), who doesn't appeal to me at all ;)
Saskia: I love her voice and the music, but I don't have to do the same thing. But I'm often compared to her, they say my voice has the same timbre as hers, hehe. Maybe because I grew up with their music.
You said you are already writing new songs?
Mauro: For the next album we thought we'd write 16 songs and use the 11 or 12 best ones. And we're at 6 now, so it'll keep us busy for a while longer ;)
Saskia: The plan is to record again at the end of next summer for an early 2007 release.
I believe you worked with some choirs for some intros. How did that come about?
Mauro: Stijn, our keyboardplayer, asked the choir from Susteren his parents sing in. I think he recorded that at school in Leuven.
Saskia: I'm not certain it was that choir... we clearly weren't there hehe, maybe you should strike this alltogether, haha!
What about Arjen Lucassen, he did the spoken intro, right?
Saskia: That was Stijn again, hehe. They are both big Queen fans and got in touch that way. We needed someone for the intro and we didn't want me to do it, it should be a surprise what comes next, so it had to be a different voice. So we asked Arjen and he was happy to do it.
You dared to put a Queen cover, "The Show Must Go On", on the CD. Why?
Saskia: our keyboardplayer again... (laughter)
Blame it on Stijn again when he's not here! ;)
Mauro: That comes in very handy, hehe.
Saskia: He's a big Queen fan, he proposed it and we already wanted to do a cover, so that was the result. We also tried "Cemetary Gates" of Pantera, but that didn't work well, hehe.
Saskia, did you get singing lessons or are you self-taught?
Saskia: I started singing when I started playing guitar at 15. And I like that so much that I started a band with Mauro after school hours. Over the years I did have a few lessons, but never on a regular basis. I prefer to do my own thing, as long as I have no problems.
Do you have other influences besides obviously Anneke van Giersbergen?
Saskia: It's not metal, but I listen to Beth Hart a lot. No other female singers really, just male. But that's more shouting and stuff hehe!
How about the other musicians?
Mauro: We are a very diverse bunch..
Saskia: We all listen to metal, but each has his own specific things. We also listen to reggae and ska..
I wouldn't have suspected that!
Mauro: I don't think you have to hear that in the music, if a certain style appeals to you. Bas loves 80s metal.
Saskia: we just talked about that earlier.. Bas said it's cool to play this music, but it's not what I listen to myself. Only Stijn likes "gothic" metal.
And what about musical educations?
Mauro: I've had drum lessons for 3 years, Pol had bass lessons for 4 years, Bas has lessons again, from Marcel Coenen. Stijn has been to music school, before we knew him.
What or who was your inspiration to pick up an instrument (or start to sing) and what to be in a band?
Mauro: hehe, for me that was Matt ... from Guns'n'Roses. He used to be my idol.
Saskia: ehm, do I really have to say it? (laughter) Well, it was Roxette. My older cousins were big fans and I copied that. I still have tapes where you suddenly hear a click, and then my voice, haha! (laughter) And then the music would continue again, haha. In all these friendship books I wrote I wanted to become a singer.
Well, you made it! :)
What inspires you when you write music?
Saskia: We usually write in the rehearsal room, the guitarists bring their ideas and they sometimes already worked on them on their own during the week, and then we further work on them together. I sometimes listen to music where I think, hey maybe we should listen to this together to draw ideas from. And that you can refer to a band when you want to make something clear. But most of it really gets developed in the rehearsal room.
So it's a democratic process?
Saskia: Oh yeah, it couldn't be any other way with us I think. We all see each other outside the band as well, and if you'd have someone telling the rest what to do, that would be weird.
Mauro: And I wouldn't enjoy it that way.
Saskia, I believe you write the lyrics? What are they generally about?
Saskia: About things that happen in my life, pretty autobiographical, but also about my view on social issues.
The cover of the CD by Nathalie Shau is amazing - did you get in touch with her and Seth Design through Black Lotus?
Saskia: Yes, she works for the label, Seth Design did all their covers I believe.
You were supposed to participate in some of the Masquerade shows, but I read on your site they were cancelled?! What happened?
Saskia: It didn't go well, the organisation didn't know how to get it all done financially because of lacking pre-sales. All 3 shows were cancelled.
You have also played in front of pop audiences, do you get different reactions from metal fans and pop fans?
Saskia: Today we had a very metal audience, but it was more boring than e.g. the Bevrijdingsfestival (Liberation day festival) we played with pop and rock bands, that was great fun. But here, I don't know why, maybe because it's a Sunday afternoon, but there wasn't a lot coming from the audience.
The turn out just wasn't big enough I guess.
Mauro: But on the other hand, when we played the OccultFest with all death and black metal bands like Pleurisy and God Dethroned, we were received very well. It was great to play there.
Saskia: Yeah we were sceptic when we got there..
Mauro: But they really enjoyed themselves at our set!
Saskia: Yes, we still have video footage from that gig, very cool. But the reactions can vary a lot, you can never predict it.
What are your plans for the near future?
Mauro: Playing, playing, playing!
Saskia: We have a lot of shows planned until February and then we want to take time to write more songs for the next CD that we would like to record next summer. That's the plan.
You have some shows with Epica coming up I believe?
Yes 5 with Epica, and 4 of those are with The Old Dead Tree as well. I think these 3 bands can draw the same type of audience, we don't play the same music, but I think it's a good combination.
I want to wish you a lot of success with the record and the shows, is there anything else you would like to tell our readers?
Mauro: Check out www.morning.nl!
submitted by Marlies 11.12.2005
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